Astro Boy The Video Game (Nintendo DS)

Astro Boy: The Video Game (Nintendo DS)
When a DS game that use the same gameplay of an amazing GBA game became a disaster of a DS game and worse than the GBA game.
Genre(s): Platform Action Beat 'em up Platform(s): Nintendo DS Release: NA: October 20, 2009 AU: November 13, 2009 EU: February 5, 2010 Developer(s): Art Co., Ltd Publisher(s): D3 Publisher

Astro Boy: The Video Game is an action platform video game based on the 2009 CGI-animated film of the same name.

This page only focus on the Nintendo DS version, which received an overwhelmingly negative reception and is considered to be the worst version of the game.

Why It Ran Out of Blue Core Energy

1. Despite being on slightly more powerful hardware than the Game Boy Advance, this game feels like a massive downgrade from Astro Boy: Omega Factor, which is the best Astro Boy game and an absolutely amazing game, but this game lacks any of the quality and charm that game had overral. Despite having pretty much the same gameplay, the reasons why it's a massive downgrade will be explained below.
2. The controls are incredibly bad, as Astro is extremely clunky, slippery, and just horrible to control in comparison to Omega Factor which had great controls, not to mention that due to how bad the controls are, you could get very easy deaths by not being careful enough, like falling in a pit because of an awful jump to do.
   • The controls also tend to be very unresponsive and can again make you get cheap deaths because of this; it's the main reason why this game is so awful and probably the worst Astro Boy game ever made, along with the 1988 Famicom game by Konami.
   • This also make the stage 4 an absolute nightmare to beat as the level 4-1 is extremely hard due to how poor the controls are and there is some moving platforms that are horribly hard to land on perfectly due to how clunky the controls are.
3. While the soundtrack is somewhat catchy, the music rather sounds like it's come from a Java game at times. This is especially noticeable in the first levels of the game. Some of the music because of this sounds either strange, annoying, or downright terrible due to poor sound choices or also because of an awful composition of the music.
4. The game is extremely short for a DS game, lasting only 1 hour, which is completely unnaceptable since most DS games are longer than that, despite some of them lasting only 2 hours, but that's still better than one hour; in fact, even Omega Factor lasts longer than this as that game lasted 3 to 5 hours and had a massive number of replay values, not to mention that it's a Game Boy Advance game, which means that when you see how short this game is, you will see that it's a massive downgrade from that game.
5. Poor characters animations to the point that it's probably the reason why the controls are so bad, as the animations are rather stiff.
6. Your health do not replish after each levels, which make the game having a large number of fake difficulty along with the awful controls that already create difficulty, this make the game easier to lose and get game over since when you use a continue, they doesn't even replish your health before you start the stage, which is unnaceptable considering that Omega Factor had health replish after each phases (not really at sub levels but in most of them you can collect a heart to replish your energy bar but still, it's much better than in this game).
7. There are no replay values at all, the only thing that you can do is to replay the main game over and over, yeah there are no unlockable to get, no credits sections, not any other stages unlocked like in Omega Factor when you got the bad ending, no to mention that to make matter worst, the game is extremely short.
8. The combat is really not fun at all compared to Omega Factor, despite mostly taking the gameplay of that game, as the combat doesn't feel that satistying or great at all; it is quite stiff, and the combat is really unresponsive at times. It's even on par with the awful combat from Mortal Kombat: Special Forces on the PS1, not even the special attacks save it since there is less time where you can do them, and again, they are less time where you can do them and again they doesn't feel as satistying or as great as in Omega Factor on the Game Boy Advance.
9. While the graphics are still good, they look worse than in Omega Factor on the GBA, with some subpar sprites or drab colors in some of the levels. There are also some enemy sprites that are extremely ugly, unappealing, or out of place for this game.
10. The upgrade system can make you lauchably overpowered as when you get all of the power ups, you can kill the ennemies in only 1 or 2 hits and being barely being attacked by the ennemies, but for the jets it's an absolute nightmare since it's make the contros miles worst with them being horribly slippery to the point that it's would literally make the game even harder at times or making the game flat out unplayable due to how bad it is.
11. Most, if not all of the bosses are awful and horribly hard for no reasons other than the fact that their hit-detection is unbalanced and can hit you really easily compared to you which had weak hit-detection and being weak with the combat overral, not to mention that they can either be too easy or too hard to fight.
12. Stage 4 is an absolute nightmare to complete as there are way too many ennemies that are here to wait you to kill them, and there are especially the absolutely abysmal platforming sections in both the levels 4-1 and level 4-3 which is some of the worst case of awful platforms placements, this is especially a problem with the horrible controls that doesn't even help the situation, the level 4-2 on the other hand is not as bad but rather too easy, so the nickpointers will only point out the level 4-1 and 4-3.
    • The level 4-1 is the worst of them all as it contain the worst amount of the awful platforming sections that are horribly hard due to how awful the controls are and how poorly placed the platforms are, it's doesn't help that due to the fact that there are no checkpoints and if you die, you had to restart the level all over again, to make matter worst, there is even a part where it's almost impossible to pass without taking damages due to how horribly placed the platforms are and also because of the fact that you doesn't had a platform where you can land and wait for it to come!
    • The level 4-3 while not as bad as level 4-1, is filled with horrible ennemies placements and having a lot of them to kill, there are also some horrible platforms placements but not as bad as level 4-1, which say a lot due to how tedious this level is.
13. Awful cutscenes, much like Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure that are just texts with some static images that look awful even by the standards of the DS, they also lack voice acting, and they are also trying to recreate the plot or scene of the movie, but because of the fact that it's not animated, the faithfulness of this game fails miserably, not to mention that they are unskipable.
14. Completely unbalanced difficulty that is either too easy or way too hard, as the game is pretty easy in the first levels and after they are either hard but not impossible to complete, and some of the levels are horribly hard. It also doesn't help that your health does not replenish after a level, as said before. The boss fights are also a victim of this, as they are either too easy or too hard to beat but not to that extent like for the levels.
15. The gameplay is awful even when compared to the console versions and the awful Wii version of it, as the controls are clunky as said before, and unlike Omega Factor, this game became extremely boring extremely fast due to being repetitive. Even the shoot 'em up phases of gameplay are poor as your attack is not as responsive as in Omega Factor and the shoot 'em up phases are also much more present than this.
16. The gameplay is not only awful but also extremely repetitive and even more so than Omega Factor, as here the action levels are horribly repetitive with the combats that doesn't feel as dynamics as Omega Factor and the combats doesn't had combats upgrade unlike Omega Factor, this essencially make this game being an absolute nightmare of an experience.
17. The hit detection is absolutely terrible. There will be many times where you are supposed to hit an enemy but you didn't because they haven't gotten a hit due to how poor the hit-detection is. There are also times where enemies are supposed to hit you but they didn't despite you clearly having contact with them, just like when you hit the enemies. This makes the game have even more fake difficulty that is just here to make the game harder than it's supposed to be.
18. The levels doesn't even had checkpoints, which make again other fake difficulty for litteraly no reason and in the worst way possible, since here as said before, the combats is extremely awful with it creating more difficulty and less fun to be had.
19. Despite the movie already being unfaithful to the anime, this game is even more unfaithful to not only the show but also the movie, especially due to how horrible the cutscenes are and how short the length is.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite still looking worse than Omega Factor, the graphics are still decent, with some of the backgrounds having a lot of details to them or most of the sprite works that look good, such as the Astro Boy sprite.
2. The sound effects are really good, especially the one where you collect the collectibles that enemies give when dying. Although that sound effect will be heard a lot of times in the game, it is not really annoying.
3. Despite the soundtrack sounding strange or like a Java game, it still had some catchy music in the game and some nostalgic ones, although that doesn't compare to the Omega Factor soundtrack.
4. Some of the levels are actually decently well designed, but the problem is that the controls are so bad that they ruin the good level design of some levels.
5. The ending is decent and emmotional.
6. Despite how horrible this game (or port) is, it still isn't as atrocious as the 1988 Famicom game which was even worst with awful levels design and little to no redeeming qualities.
7. Luckily, you can restore all of your lost healths when you get all of the blue corps energy needed, something that Omega Factor lacked, which is the only improvement over the aforementioned game.

Reception

Unlike the PlayStation 2 and PSP versions which received mixed reviews, this version received overwhelmingly negative reviews and this version is considered to be the worst version so far, even more than the Wii version.

The game had a score of 34/100 on Metacritic, making it the worst rated version of the web site after the Wii version which received a score of 48/100.

Comments

Loading comments...